Liquor dealer advertisement for Oak Run Whiskey, San Francisco, CA, street scene, 1906, after the earthquake.

Price:  $8.00          Size:  5 x 3 and 3/4″

Here’s an old trade card, of sorts, showing a photo of a street scene described as:

“62.  View showing sink in the street near the new Post Office, San Francisco, Cal., after the earthquake of April 18,  06.”

This is on thin paper, produced from a photo that may have originally appeared in a newspaper or magazine. These types of reproductions were typically not high quality, were sometimes color-tinted, and even sometimes altered somewhat for content. Views of the aftermath of natural disasters were commonly made into postcards, and into advertisements that local businesses could give out, like the one we have here. Stamped on the back is:

“Compliments of Brunsing, Tolle & Postel, OAK RUN WHISKEY, 412-414 Kearney St., San Francisco. 423-425 — 9th St., Oakland.”

Brunsing, Tolle & Postel, wholesale liquor dealers, from the 1907 city directory were:   Peter T. Brunsing (president) Oscar A. Tolle (vice-president) and C. D. Postel (treasurer, Alameda). C. D. Postel is likely Christian D. Postel (wines) from the 1906 Oakland city directory (Alameda County) which shows S. F., (so, cross-referenced, on the S.F. and Oakland directories.) The 1907 S. F. directory also shows D. J. Greger (secretary).

Unfortunately for the company, it was evidently forced to file bankruptcy in or prior to April 1909. But on a happier note, examples of old bottles and labels for B, T & P and their whiskey brand of Oak Run were currently found online, at the time of this post.

Sources:  Crocker – Langley San Francisco City Directory, 1907. pp. 328, 1300, 1582. Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989.

Husted’s Oakland, Alameda & Berkeley Directory, 1906. p. 589. Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989.

American Bankruptcy Reports, Vol. 22, ed. John T. Cook. Albany, New York:  Matthew Bender & Co.,1910, p. 129. (Google eBook.)